Merciful Friend
by public static void
Summary: Tom is a good friend. He will be Ginny's companion and he will protect Luna.


**Written for Hogwarts' Herbology Task #1 -** Write a story centred around the figurative meaning of the word 'venomous' (spiteful, malignant, malicious).

 **Extra prompts:** (Character) Luna Lovegood, (Colour) cyanide.

 **Also for the Ultimate Patronus Quest -** Class B Mammals: Hare (Write about Luna Lovegood)

 **Word count:** 1867.

* * *

The cold water feels foul against the skin of her tiny feet, but she still bravely takes another step into the flooding bathroom.

Luna half expects to find Moaning Myrtle there, waiting for someone who can make her company, but she isn't. A pout forms in her small, pale lips.

Looking around, Luna seeks anyone who can help her get rid of the water, but no one is here and the only thing she can do with her limited supply of spells is to close the taps –and that doesn't even include magic.

She stares at her feet. They are underwater and maybe she should visit Madam Pomfrey because her toes are normally pink and right now they are of a pretty cyanide colour.

She is about to leave, suddenly scared by the numbness of her toes, when she finds a book damp and forgotten. It's a sad sight because books are meant to be cherished and loved until the time comes to gift them and let another person enjoy them.

Luna walks towards the book and stares at it. From above, the book looks lonely.

"No one likes to be lonely," she whispers to the book and picks it up, looking for a title and only finding a name. "Tom Em Riddle," she enunciates and a hint of magic bursts forward from the book.

Luna giggles. The magic is cold, but not like the water still soaking her feet. It's more like the cold of a breeze after the rain has gone.

A bell rings and she hurries, taking the book along.

.

.

.

It's midnight when she remembers about it.

Luna jumps from her bed and takes out the book from her backpack. It isn't wet anymore.

She lights up a candle and sits on her bed with her legs crossed.

When she opens the book and notices it's blank, a disappointed look crosses her face before she lights up. It means she can use it as a journal!

She opens it in the first page and, getting both ink and quill, writes in small and round calligraphy: 'Hello Mister Book. I found you in Myrtle's Bathroom. Do you feel well?'

Her eyes widen when the book swallows the ink and another surge of magic tickles her hands.

'I suppose a thank you is in order. May I know the name of my saviour?'

She giggles in the faint candlelight, feeling pleased to be called a saviour.

'I am Luna,' she writes and stares in fascination as the ink disappears again. Luna holds her breath for a few seconds before the fancy calligraphy returns.

'Nice to meet you, Luna. My name is Tom Riddle.'

She almost writes that she knows it already because it's written on the smooth leather cover, stopping herself as the quill touches the page.

The blank page absorbs the ink before she can think of something else to say –something that doesn't sound as rude.

'Did something happen?' Tom asks and a warm tingling sensation spreads in her chest at the thought of someone caring for her, even if it's just an enchanted book.

'The mnemosyne hummingbirds stole my voice,' she writes and giggles, wondering if Tom Em Riddle knows what the little, tiny birds are. 'But it's back and I can thank you for being kind.'

The book vibrates a little, making Luna think Tom Riddle is laughing.

'Why don't you come and visit?' he writes and Luna hesitates. Her daddy has warned her about people –bad people– who like to hurt others for fun. To her, that is a strange thought that can't be comprehended deeply, but she is sure Tom is not one of those people. Besides, Luna has saved him!

'How?' she writes, waiting for seconds until light –magic!– comes from the pages and forms waves of golden ink that touch her skin and fill her with a coldness she can't ignore.

Luna shivers, but before she knows the world around her is faded and in shades of grey.

The cold brings back the foul sensation of damp feet.

"Hello, Luna," someone says. "How nice of you to come."

Something in him bothers her, whether it is the taunting voice or the hard look in his eyes, Luna can't quite point it out.

"Are you Tom?" she asks, feeling smaller than ever when facing the tall wizard who wears a Hogwarts' uniform the same as she does. His, though, has the crest of Hogwarts when her own uniform has Ravenclaw's eagle.

"Aren't you a little dumb for a Ravenclaw?" he asks, circling her and reaching to touch her hair. "And to think the other girl –Ginevra– was smarter than you."

She knows Ginny. She's in some of her classes and Luna likes to admire from afar the red of her hair and the fire in her eyes. Someday, she will be like Ginny.

"Everyone has a different type of intelligence," Luna tries to say, hunching her shoulders to make herself small. He scares her; there is something mad in his eyes that glints when the faint light reaches him.

"I know," he says, nodding. Luna manages a small smile, a friendly attempt spurned by his snort and his derisive smile.

"Were you happy outside, Luna?" he asks, lowering himself to stare directly at her eyes. The brown is overwhelmingly cold, nothing like the smell of chocolate the image brings up to mind.

"Sometimes," she admits, lowering her eyes and biting her lip. One of her hands is holding her pajama bottoms too tight, and the other is scratching her palm. "When people are nice to me. But they aren't. They hide my socks and hang my shoes in high places I can't reach."

"Why don't you use magic? Aren't you a witch?" he is derisive again, frightening Luna who keeps flinching with each of his words.

"I can't. They are nice to others, so there must be something wrong with me, not with them."

He takes on a confused look that manages to confuse Luna too. What is he thinking?

"You will stay here forever, Luna," he tells her after long seconds.

Her eyes widen and her mouth falls open as he laughs. He can't do it! He can't leave her inside a book! She wants daddy and her warm bed, and she wishes she could go back in time and leave the book in the water.

"I am merciful," he offers when his laughter ceases and her shocked eyes plead with him. "I promise no one will hurt you again. I will hurt them first."

His last words to her are forever in her memory as he fades. Nothing from him lingers with her but a tendril of black smoke that wraps around her wrist and takes the form of a serpent.

The darkness covers her and she is left in the cold ground of a limbo, hugging her knees to her chest.

.

.

.

Luna's morning is quick. Nothing is out of place. Her hair is brushed and braided, her teeth brushed and her uniform is pressed clean. Though no one notices, her usually vacant look is filled with determination.

Her books are already in her schoolbag, ordered alphabetically according to the schedule on her nightstand. She walks out of her dorm with a pair of another girl's shoes –after a quick but deep cleaning charm– because hers are lost again.

Breakfast is simple. A bowl of porridge with honey and dates, and a glass of cold water to refresh her. She is glad there are no overwhelmingly loud sounds at her table, but now and then she glances at the green table. She misses sitting there, but she can't just walk and claim a seat. She isn't Tom Riddle but Luna Lovegood, an eleven years old pureblood girl.

"Looney Luna," some girls chants as she sits across from her. Luna looks up from her breakfast and stares into her mind. She sees secrets; a bruise in her own skin caused by the unnamed girl –Bella Harper, the mind supplies–, missing shoes hanging from a gargoyle near the Astronomy Tower, and the usual guilt of a child who cheats in exams. Tom –Luna– smiles charmingly.

"Can I help you with anything, Bella?" Luna says, setting her spoon at the side of her plate. The girl pales and Luna –or Tom?– smirks. "If not, then please refrain from speaking to me. And the next time you want to _steal_ something from me, think it twice and don't do it. You will pay if you do."

Those around them laugh and Luna grins wickedly. Harper is afraid of her, the small, little looney girl who is finally fighting back.

"Excuse me," she says and smiles to everyone else.

Luna stands up and walks to Gryffindor's table. Ginny is sitting away from her brothers, with a small boy who looks too young to be attending Hogwarts.

"Ginevra?" she asks with a sultry voice unlike her usual. She wants to laugh –to madly cackle and fire a spell to the sky– when Ginevra turns around and sees her with wide eyes. She recognises her. "You look better."

"Are you To–"

"Going _to_ class?" Luna supplies with a big grin that lets her pretty teeth show. "Yes. Will you come with me?"

Ginny wants to refuse, Luna can see it. "Don't be shy," she continues, tilting her head to a side and opening her eyes more. "I am your friend, aren't I?"

Luna laughs and Ginevra shakes in her seat. She's pale, but Luna still grabs her unusually warm hand and pulls her up.

Ginevra looks towards the few other kids around her and waves them off, shooting a last glance to her multiple brothers that –as usual– ignore her.

"Where are we going?" Ginevra asks fearfully. "Are you really Tom?"

"We are going to a secret place, Ginevra," Luna whispers in her ear.

"You didn't answer," she presses and catches Luna as she tries to get out of Ginevra's reach. "Are _you_ Tom? How can it be?"

"I am glad you recognise me, Ginevra," he says through Luna's voice. "Aren't you glad I came to you? I can be your friend and protect little Luna from those bullies at the same time."

Luna keeps walking, feeling as if she were walking in the air. She turns to see Ginevra, frozen outside the Great Hall and staring at her in fear. She grins.

.

.

.

He can't be here. He can't be here.

But he is.

Ginny stares at Luna, but she sees him in spite of not knowing how he looks.

When she speaks, it's his cold voice reaching her ears. Ginny shivers; she loathes that demanding and cruel voice that orders around things she can't avoid doing. This time, though, he isn't ink scribbled on paper or a voice inside her mind.

He is Luna, and when he turns around to smile, the malicious grin petrifies her.

He is here.


End file.
